I Need tips on taking my autistic son to WDW

[Princess_Christina26]

Hi I am taking my 6 year old son to WDW for his first trip in December for his birthday. He has problems with too much stimilation. What can I do to make it more enjoyable for him and less stressful for me?

 

[lucigo]

Does he have a stroller? I would say that would be a good way for him to have his own space. You can even put a light towel over it to give him his own little cave if he needs some quiet time.

I also suggest you listen to the clues he gives you. If he isn't enjoying the rides dont push them. Don't assume he likes the same things about the world that you do, and let him have time for the things he finds enjoyable also.

Staying on site gives you the opportunity to go back to your room for some down time. We also bring favorite toys, little magnadoodle, game boy, cars, etc.

 

[lucigo]

I noticed you are in Florida...you might consider getting a seasonal pass and not trying to do too much in a day, but span out your experience over several trips. We went in January and stayed at Pop. I then made my son a shutterfly book with things he found enjoyable about the trip. We used that book to prepare him before our next trip in March. We will go back again this winter and expect him to be much more familiar with the whole thing.

 

[Lifisgd]

We go to WDW every year. Last year was our best. Now we did a few things different this time.
1) we brought our niece to be Charlie's one on one. (we also have a 3yr old)
2) BRING head phones. WOW what a help.
Were are you stayng? We thought Charlie would not ride the bus but he did. He loved all the fast rides. Who knew. WDW brought a lot out for Charlie.
3) buy the book "A child with Autism goes to Walt Disney World. A lot of simple tap on the forehead ideas. It has quiet spots, etc.
4) Make sure you take afternoon breaks. A splash in the pool
5) We tried to watch fire works but that always threw Charlie over the edge. Not the fire works, but staying up past 8:30.
Ask more or private email me if you want I love Disney and Charlie is counting the days 190.
I could go on, but I'll let others take their turns.
Don't forget every child is different. I worried way too much before our trip. As always Chalie proved us wrong.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

Hi and to disABILITIES!

If you click on where it says "disABILTIES" at the top of this page it will take you to the Index. One of the top items is the "disABILTIES FAQ" which will gives lots of useful information. You will probably be most interested in that part of Post #3 which deals with autism and also Post #6.

Or, if you want an easier route, click on the link in my signature.

I noticed you are in Florida...you might consider getting a seasonal pass and not trying to do too much in a day, but span out your experience over several trips.

I would suggest your original purchase be a Play-3 or Play-4 pass. These can be upgraded to a Seasonal Pass or Annual Pass for up to six months from the date of first use. If you purchase any passes other than those two the time limit for upgrading is 14 days from date of first use.

 

[pilgrimr]

Our son is also six and autistic. We also will be there this December, but this will actually be his fourth trip. One thing we did to prepare him was watching the promo video that they send out. We also went back to the hotel for breaks. He was open to most things, but we realized that he did not like the shows (Playhouse Disney, Lion King, etc). At we would always talk to the cm's at the shows and ask if we could sit by the exit if we had to go. They were always helpful. They can also be a great source of information. As it turned out we did not even make it to the show beginings. We had to leave and so now we just don't do the shows. What also worked for us, was that we got there when it opened. The crowd is lighter and most rides had short lines for him to do. It also takes a day or so for him to get use to it and get into it. Hope you have fun and Disney is very good at helping special needs children. It is why we go back every year.

 

[pilgrimr]

3) buy the book "A child with Autism goes to Walt Disney World. A lot of simple tap on the forehead ideas. It has quiet spots, etc.

Lifisgd,
Where did you find this book? I looked on amazon and half.com but could not find it.

 

[bkfree]

I have a son who is 9 and has autism. We will be making our 3rd trip to Disney the first of Dec. While we have always gotten him the GAC, I am happy to say we have never had to use it.
We try and stack the odds in his favor in other ways.
We always go during low crowd value season so the lines are very managable.
We take advantage of EMH, especially early morning at Epcot.
We always get FP when available.
We always opt for waiting in line and then play it by ear. Usually if he has a snack or drink he is occupied during the wait. Other times the wait gives his the chance to check out the ride and surroundings before we get onboard and this helps him.
He has to wait his turn at school and in life in general, there are no GACs in the real world and we try and prepare him for that.
After being the parent of a special boy for the last 9 years, the number of tricks up our sleeves that we have to entertain and distract him are innumerable.
BUT, if ever he truly does become agitated or stresses beyond control then I will quickly whip out that GAC as fast as I can.
WDW has always proven to be a magical place for him and he returns home sprinkled with lots of fairy dust.

.Here are some things that help when we are in a waiting situation.

Play back some video we have taken at the parks on our small Sony Handycam that we always have with us.

Take goofy pics of him with the digital camera, let him see them,delete them and do some more. It is amazing how long this keeps him occupied.

Get him a frozen coke. He loves them and it takes a while to drink through the straw.
Ditto with popcorn. He will sit and eat it and people watch for a long time.

A few small matchbox cars I keep in my bag will also entertain him in line.

A YoYo also keeps him occupied,(Us too)

We also keep a small pair of binoculars with us and he loves to sit and look around the park with them.(Us too)

Stickers . Sticking them on our face, his face,his sister and anywhere else deemed entertaining.

He loves Blues Clues so we get a pen and a very small spiral notebook and he looks around and tells us where the clues are and we draw a picture of it.

A small personal battery operated fan also keeps him occupied. Those really small cheap ones.

The month before we go I start collection small things and keep them hidden from him and that is our "line bag of tricks". I also pick up a few things from the parks during our trip.
ALso the great day after Thanksgiving sale at the Disney store gets me a big load of small stuff.

I can't believe I forgot our #1 most useful and successful tool with our son, his MP3 player.It is tiny and fits easily in his pocket with ear buds.Bought it at Walmart for about $30 and it is fantastic.
We have it loaded with all of his favorite songs, mostly country. In the car, restaurants and waiting in line he just plugs it in and is a happy and patient boy.

I can't imagine what we would do with out this invention.
FYI= We have the one that uses a AAA battery so that we do not have to worry about it running out of a charge. It is so easy to slip an extra battery in my bag or pocket.


__________________

 

[mechurchlady]

It has been posted that hunting earmuffs aka protective devices greatly help kids who cannot handle auditory stimulous like loud noises. Some parents put stickers on the headphones/earmuffs so people know that the kid is using them because of autism. You can search the threads for more info and some come in colours. There are hunting and there are the heavy duty machine worker types.

 

[Princess_Christina26]

thank you everyone for your ideas! They have given me alot of tricks to do to make it easy.

We are probably going to stay at Shades of Green i have stayed there and its relaxing and a very nice resort. I was thinking of just doing Magic Kingdom because it has more for his age and its my favorite lol and then going to Sea World because he has been there and loves it.

I will probably do the 4 day play pass so then I can get a seasonal pass at a later date. I have been debating the seasonal pass since I live 2 hours away so we can go anytime

 

[Nik's Mom]

Hi! I am the mom of 2 autistic sons (6 and 9 years old). We have been to WDW several times and have also been on a cruise. My biggest tip is to go the the parks first thing in the morning! We are there usually just before the gates open, then we head to the most popular rides first. This minimizes the wait in line. GAC can be used as a last resort. I must say that because of our strategy of early arrival, we rarely use the GAC.

Also, be sure to go back to the hotel for an afternoon break. When our sons were younger, they would take refuge in the stroller when the crowd became too much for them. Your 6 year old should be able to fit into the big rental strollers that they have in the park andthe GAC will allow you into the lines for the rides with the stroller.

I just bought those ear muffs for my ds. He is afraid of loud noises. He is still trying to get used to wearing them. If you want to try the ear muffs, make sure that you test them out ahead of time. I bought ours at Walmart for only $13 in the hunting/fishing section.

 

[Lifisgd]

I found the title to the book " The Child With Autism Goes To Florida: Theme Park & Resort Guide, Tips and Rides Review

BY: Kathy Labosh
paperback 98 pages

Worth the purchase.

 

[ireland_nicole]

I was just thinking, too; my kids both like to watch videos on my iphone and itunes has the travel channel season of disney available to download. When DD and DS start to get sensory overload, I just give them the earphones and they zone out watching it. (thanks to severe ADHD along w/ ASD no interest in gameboys, but get some tunes or a disney video and it's zone central)

And I second all the pp's comments; we do all that, esp. the ear protector thing-that was the single smartest purchase we ever made. We can do so much more now.

 

[Lifisgd]

We also, watched YouTube videos of the rides. They are really good. people have taken their cameras in so you can watch the whole ride. That helped on the introduction of each one. (prep work) As for the head phones we also put the Autism ribbon sticker on them. He also wore a baseball cap that says autistic today genius tomorrow. He still wears it. People would have that quick glance at Charlie when he was having a moment then saw that he was just being him autistic. We actually had people smile at us and give us the look like he's doing great.

 

[pilgrimr]

Talking about youtube videos, we like the ride through that Bob from the podcast did on his evc. Those were good to watch to get the idea of what it is like at rope drop. There is a lot that they can see on the youtube.

 

[disneydeb]

dont forget the glow sticks, in case he's afraid of the dark rides, you'd be surprised what they are afraid of from one year to the next. and bubbles, i think i have blown more bubbles in wdw than any other grandma also we do not do many sit down restaurants, its usually counter service. if we do sit down, we order and when food comes we ask for check and doggie bags just in case, we have to leave in middle of meltdown. believe me your servers wont mind dgs has done disney cruise twice and wdw 4 times already, mnsshp once, which i was a little nervous about hence the glowsticks came in handy. oh and bring a change of clothes as for some reason he wants to jump in every fountain in every park and dtd, trust me on this one and like everyone said, disney is a very positive experience for children and it DOES GET EASIER!one other thing i forgot, if your flying, i either fly jet blue which has built in tv sets to back of seats, dgs watches cartoons or listens to music, or i bring a small dvd player for the plane and airport with favorite dvd's which helps also. in airport we usually have a lot of kids that will come over and watch them too!

 

[kaffinito]

The only thing I can add to all of that great advice from the PP's is to make sure that you take a few breaks while in the parks. Water always helps my ASD son John, and I just found out about Donald's Boat where the kids can play.

Also, and I might have missed this one in the above comments, if your son gets fixated on a ride, let him do it a few times and then it's easier to get them to do/try something else.

It can be done, my son was 6 for his first trip, and I think I had more meltdowns then he did!

 

[blondietink]

My 16 yo with Autism has been going to WDW since he was 8. He does wear headphones most of the day, even at home so this is a must anywhere he goes. I just asked him what helps him at WDW to have a good time. He said "the stroller" (adult travel chair). I think this helps him because he is able to consentrate on what is happening around him (music, characters, rides, parades, fireworks, etc.) without having to worry about getting lost, staying with mom & dad, etc. He doesn't want to miss anything he considers important. We also take a abreak at the pool in the afternoon and take advantage of EMH's, both morning and evening. We are leaving in 3 days to drive to Florida, so he is getting very excited! Good luck!

 

[mom2OandE]

Our ds who is 4 also has an ASD. This will be his 4th trip although last year was the first that we had problems. It was also the first we used the GAC which made our stay much better. We found that for him the fireworks were just too much. So we avoided being in the park at those times.

We did discover that his favorite ride was Small World. Everytime he would start to lose it we'd try to head for that ride. It would make him happy and gave all of us a chance to regroup for a minute. Needless to say we rode it 20+ times over 7 days! The employees really got used to us.

We go again in 6 weeks and the two things I will definatly be taking is a stroller with a cover or blanket and his MP3 player. It was a lifesaver last year! He used it at least 50% of everyday and gave him controlled noise. He has one by fisher price so we were able to do stories and music. He loved it!

 

[DisMomAmy]

Hi! Our DS7 has autism and has been to WDW twice (that he remembers), at ages 5 & almost 7. It has been such a wonderful experience for our whole family that we are planning our next trip.

I suggest many of the same things others have said... rent a stroller, it's a nice escape from the crowds and walking. Headphones, earplugs and frequent breaks are helpful to prevent overstimulation. We wouldn't have been able to do it with the GAC. ADHD is part of DS's diagnosis and he cannot wait for more than 10 minutes or so. We didn't even consider going to WDW until we heard about the GAC. We used the "stroller as a wheelchair" GAC stamp for the first trip, but found we didn't really need it for the second.

At restaurants we have asked for seating to the side of the room to avoid the crowds somewhat - also eating at off-peak times has helped - for all of us.

My DIS-friend mousescrapper made an awesome guidebook for her ASD son. You can read about it at this link: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1774902

We have decided that staying off-site works better for us. We haven't stayed on-site with the kids (I stayed at Pop with my mom in April) but we think we really need the space that we can afford off-site. Ideally we would stay in a 1BR or 2BR room on-site, but we just can't swing that - especially if we want to go every year or two. We also find the rental car helpful - even if we stayed on-site we would have one. Being in his own space immediately after leaving the parks was great - and the small cooler with cold drinks in the car was perfect. Sounds like you'll have your car there since you live in Florida - you might want to drive it to the parks even though you don't have to.

Have a great trip!